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Top honours won on closing day in Krakow

The last day of the Junior and U23 Canoe Slalom World Championships found people in high spirits even though the weather conditions were poor with persistent rain. Four individual categories and four team events would be won today.

Women’s U23 Kayak Final

A double gold winner at this year’s World Championship, Jessica Fox (AUS) proved her excellence with the only clear run of the final finishing in a time of 91.29 seconds. Her performance at this World Championships sets her up very nicely leading into the Olympic Games, Rio 2016. Karolina Galuskova (CZE) put in a very respectable run as well to take the silver medal. Lisa Fritsche (GER) took the bronze.

The ICF caught up with Fox after her race, “I am very happy to win my 10th Junior and U23 title today. It was a challenging course, even in some of the world cups we don’t get courses like that, so I think for Junior and U23 it was a decent technical course and I really enjoyed paddling in it.” When asked about what this meant for preparation for Rio 2016 she replied “This is different because it’s a Championship, there is more pressure and it’s a longer racing week, closer to the Olympics format that’s why I wanted to race here. I know that a lot of athletes would have had a month and a half without racing but for me it was a good test before Rio.”

Men’s U23 Canoe Double Final

Local support was loud for this final and it made a difference as Filip and Andrzej Brzezinski (POL) took the gold medal in a clear run in front of their home crowd. The time of the winning run was 95.93 seconds. To make the home crowd even happier Michal Wiercioch and Grzegorz Majerczak (POL) came in second, they would have managed first but four seconds of penalties meant they missed out on the gold. French duo Yves Prigent and Loic Kervella, received a well deserved bronze medal each.

Women’s Junior Kayak Final

The home crowd would be further entertained in the Junior Women’s category. The top five girls all had clear runs making it an exciting competition. Polish, Klaudia Zwolinska would finish at the top of the podium with a time of 96.30 seconds. Laia Sorribes (ESP) finished in second place after a clear run as well. Antonie Galuskova (CZE) would take the bronze medal in this event. Zwolinska reflected after the race “I had a few mistakes but my run was fast and better than the semi’s. I don’t live in Krakow but I train here from time to time.”

Men’s Junior Canoe Double Final

In the final individual event of the Championships the Czech partnership of Albert Kasper and Vojech Mruzek would put up the fastest time and even with a two second penalty no one else could catch them and they paddled off with the gold medal. Lennard Tuchscherer and Fritz Lehrach (GER) managed a clear run but could not match the Czech’s overall time and had to settle for silver. Yet again the Polish crowd cheered as Jakub Brzezinksi and Kacper Sztuba crossed the finish line with a clear run to take the bronze medal. Speaking to the ICF Kasper and Mruzek said “It was not a very good run, but we made it. When we arrived to the bottom of the course and we saw our time we said maybe it works and we can stay on the top and finally it did. We had a touch on gate 6 and I said to myself ‘we will not make it and it’s done’ but we paddled hard and finished the fastest.”